Seeking justice is 'absolutely central' to Christian faith, says Archbishop

Excellent speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury

Prayers for Syria

Click here: Prayers for Syria

Letter to the Harlow Star following the arson attack on the Islamic Centre

Dear Sir or Madam,

This last week we heard the terrible news of the arson attack at the Harlow Islamic Centre. Our hearts go out to our friends and neighbours. We give thanks there was no injury.

This is not only an attack on dear friends and neighbours; this is also an attack on us all, for it is an attack on worship, or 'worthship', we might say.

Worship ('giving worth') is to do with those people or things we value most. In the traditional Church of England Marriage Service, the groom says to his bride, "I thee worship". Each of us in our own way, gives worth to someone or something, even if we are not religious.

So this is an attack on the people, things, beliefs, each of us value most. For if the things some of us hold dear are attacked, anything special is up for grabs.

Places of worship are places set aside to help us value the important things in life. It has been a joy for many of us in recent months to get to enjoy the warm hospitality of the Islamic Centre. Places of worship help build local community.

In addition, for those united in the conviction that just as there is an artist behind a painting, so there is a God behind the universe - places of worship of God somehow come to represent all that is most precious.

The local Christian community join in prayer for Centre Chairman, Ajaib Hussian, and all the Centre community. Let us all seek to find ways of expressing our concern, love and support for our friends and neighbours.

Yours,

Martin Harris

Chair, Heart4Harlow

Area Dean (Church of England)

Team Rector, St Paul's & St Mary's

Preparing for Sunday Sermon: Luke 12:49-56

Do you want to know if your Christianity is genuine?

Here is the touchstone:
Whom do you get along with?
Who are those who criticize you?
Who are those who do not accept you? Who are those who flatter you?

Know from that what Christ said once:
“I have come not to bring peace, but division.”10 There will be division even in the same family, because some want to live more comfortably

by the world’s principles,

those of power and money.
But others have embraced the call of Christ
and must reject all that cannot be just in the world.

Oscar Romero - NOVEMBER 13, 1977 

Don Crane - Loving God, Loving Each Other, and Loving Life: The reward of dwelling with God today!

A wonderful story in today's celebrity culture..
Don Crane - Loving God, Loving Each Other, and Loving Life: The reward of dwelling with God today!:   One of my favorite missionary stories is of Henry C. Morrison. Mr. & Mrs. Morrison were faithful missionaries who served the Lord in...

As I prepare for this coming Sundays reading on Luke 12:49,50 (etc), plus preaching on John 1 in September, rather enjoying this from Malcolm Guite:

listen to ‘St. John's Eve’ on Audioboo

Quote of the Week

Very helpful article by Jonathan Sacks in the Times last Saturday. The concluding paragraphs:

Idol worship and magical thinking happen when we believe some institution or person will bend the world to our desires, making problems vanish without effort on our part. The idol can be liberal democracy, the consumer society, science, medicine or genetic engineering.

Religious faith says all these things can be a blessing or a curse, depending on whether they are used with humility, restraint, concern for the common good and care for long-term consequences.

Humility involves the recognition that there is something greater than us to whom we are accountable. Restraint means that not everything we can do we should do. Concern for the common good means recognising that others, not just us, are in the image and likeness of God. Care for long-term consequences means believing in something that will last longer than we will.

Religion is not myth or magic. It is the recognition of how small we are in the scheme of things, and how great is our responsibility to others. It is the still, small voice reminding us that there is no achievement without sacrifice, no freedom without self-restraint. Those who worship the idols of the age perish with the age, while the worship of eternity lives on.

Lord Sacks is Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

We need I think to be making common cause with the cosmologists (such as Brian Cox) and the psychologists, as those who in time help teach us this humility. They are to some extent perhaps the psalmists and wisdom writers of our world - Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Job, some of the Psalms etc. point us to how little we know, how small we are in the vast scheme of things (as so the cosmologists) - yet in the appropriate places eg Psalm 8, show us how significant we are.

Pondering the John Piper mosaic at St Paul's, Harlow

The arts can... re-educate the modern reader of the Bible to read more richly - more traditionally but simultaneously more creatively - than they would otherwise do. They bequeath to us some wonderful exercises in contemplative dwelling in the Bible: inspiring models...
Ben Quash, Abiding. He also explores other aspects of 'abiding' cp. John 15
- place (the community of the parish church)
- care, which is closely related to presence;
- relationships; and
- exile;
as well as exploring abiding wounds and peace.
Most, if not all, explorations of 'abiding' I have come across explore it from a devotional, individual perspective. Ben Quash's approach is much richer, and perhaps gets closer to the sense that John intended, by widening the perspective. Thus he helps relate Jesus exhortation to 'consider the flowers of the field' of Matthew 6 to 'abiding'. Jesus is here dwelling on, I suggest, the art and craft of the Father, as seen through nature.

How to Grieve at Ceremonial Funerals

As our nation debates and focuses on the funeral of Margaret Thatcher, are we all missing something?
Towering over us all is the fact of death. The stream of death takes all our leaders and us all in its wake. 100 years from now none of us reading this will be here. Be we Christian or non-Christian, most have an awe, a fear, of death (though I have met one person who told me, and I believed him, that he takes death in a very matter or fact way, and I guess others must do too).
This reality is what those who protest are in danger of ignoring (and hear me out before drawing a conclusion). Let us be angry at death. It destroys what D B Hart refers to as the "fabulous, unverifiable Christian insistence upon the infinite dignity of every soul and the infinite value of every life".
But this reality is no less ignored by those who draw too hasty conclusions as to the 'Thatcher years', be they positive or negative. Talk of statues, the huge debt we owe, and much besides... It is not a question of whether these things are right or wrong, whether her legacy be good or bad. The issue is that it is inappropriate at this point.
For towering over us all is the fact of death. Death has done its black work, as it will do for us all. In the light of it, we must all grieve, all stand with those who mourn (speaking only of 'respect' for the death  is sub-Christian - Christian compassion means that we will want to share in grief at any loss). Death says that all our judgments are provisional. We stand as Lego figures in the great stream of history. Who dare make any final judgment?
For the Christian, death itself is a message. On the Cross, Christ conquered this black dog. There is Resurrection in Christ, but the way of Resurrection is the way of the Cross: humility, grief, reflection, pain, change. Let no-one hijack death to their own ends. Death will not and does not allow it.
I have been very struck by the dignity of Margaret Thatcher's family in the midst of the political debate and turmoil. It is as if they know that all the politics is irrelevant. They have more important things to do - to grieve. And they are absolutely right. Let us all follow their example.
It is God who will make the final judgment, some of which will be revealed as history unfolds. I suspect the service at St Paul's Cathedral, based around the Book of Common Prayer (as requested I think by Mrs Thatcher), will make this very clear.

Every Member Ministry in the Church

Some excellent insight from Pope Francis

Prayers for those caught up in Boston Marathon

Media Centre News List

Scars, doubt and breathing peace

Some helpful thoughts here on Thomas and scars
Scars, doubt and breathing peace | The Christian Century

Quote for the Day

Time takes no holiday. It does not roll idly by, but through our senses works its own wonders in the mind.
- St Augustine, Confessions

'Out of our own traditions, and into the waves': the Archbishop of Canterbury's inaugural sermon

Sermon at the Inauguration of the Ministry of the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Portal Welby

Canterbury Cathedral, 21st March 2013

(Commemoration of Thomas Cranmer, Feast of St Benedict)

Ruth 2:10-16; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Matthew 14:22-23; "Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid", Matthew 14:27

To each one of us, whoever and wherever we are, joining us from far away by television of radio, or here in the Cathedral, Jesus calls through the storms and darkness of life and says "Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid".

Our response to those words sets the pattern for our lives, for the church, for the whole of society. Fear imprisons us and stops us being fully human. Uniquely in all of human history Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the one who as living love liberates holy courage.

"If it is you tell me to come to you on the water" Peter says, and Jesus replies "come". History does not relate what the disciples thought about getting out of a perfectly serviceable boat, but Peter was right, and they were wrong. The utterly absurd is completely reasonable when Jesus is the one who is calling. Courage is liberated, and he gets out of the boat, walks a bit, and then fails. Love catches him, gently sets him right, and in a moment they are both in the boat and there is peace. Courage failed, but Jesus is stronger than failure.

The fear of the disciples was reasonable. People do not walk on water, but this person did. For us to trust and follow Christ is reasonable if He is what the disciples end up saying He is; "truly you are the Son of God". Each of us now needs to heed His voice calling to us, and to get out of the boat and go to Him. Because even when we fail, we find peace and hope and become more fully human than we can imagine: failure forgiven, courage liberated, hope persevering, love abounding.

For more than a thousand years this country has to one degree or another sought to recognise that Jesus is the Son of God; by the ordering of its society, by its laws, by its sense of community. Sometimes we have done better, sometimes worse. When we do better we make space for our own courage to be liberated, for God to act among us and for human beings to flourish. Slaves were freed, Factory Acts passed, and the NHS and social care established through Christ-liberated courage. The present challenges of environment and economy, of human development and global poverty, can only be faced with extraordinary courage.

In humility and simplicity Pope Francis called us on Tuesday to be protectors of each other: of the natural world, of the poor and vulnerable. Courage is released in a society that is under the authority of God, so that we may become the fully human community of which we all dream. Let us hear Christ who calls to us and says "Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid".

The first reading we heard dates from the time of Israel before the Kings. It is the account of a Moabite refugee – utterly stigmatised, inescapably despised - taking the huge risk of choosing a God she does not know in a place she has not been, and finding security when she does so. The society Ruth went to was healthy because it was based on obedience to God, both in public care and private love.

Today we may properly differ on the degrees of state and private responsibility in a healthy society. But if we sever our roots in Christ we abandon the stability which enables good decision making. There can be no final justice, or security, or love, or hope in our society if it is not finally based on rootedness in Christ. Jesus calls to us over the wind and storms, heed his words and we will have the courage to build society in stability.

For nearly two thousand years the Church has sought, often failing, to recognise in its way of being that Jesus is the Son of God. The wind and waves divided Jesus from the disciples. Peter ventures out in fear and trembling (as you may imagine I relate to him at this point). Jesus reconciles Peter to Himself and makes the possibility for all the disciples to find peace. All the life of our diverse churches finds renewal and unity when we are reconciled afresh to God and so are able to reconcile others. A Christ-heeding life changes the church and a Christ-heeding church changes the world: St Benedict set out to create a school for prayer, and incidentally created a monastic order that saved European civilisation.

The more the Church is authentically heeding Jesus' call, leaving its securities, speaking and acting clearly and taking risks, the more the Church suffers. Thomas Cranmer faced death with Christ-given courage, leaving a legacy of worship, of holding to the truth of the gospel, on which we still draw. I look at the Anglican leaders here and remember that in many cases round the world their people are scattered to the four winds or driven underground: by persecution, by storms of all sorts, even by cultural change. Many Christians are martyred now as in the past.

Yet at the same time the church transforms society when it takes the risks of renewal in prayer, of reconciliation and of confident declaration of the good news of Jesus Christ. In England alone the churches together run innumerable food banks, shelter the homeless, educate a million children, offer debt counselling, comfort the bereaved, and far, far more. All this comes from heeding the call of Jesus Christ. Internationally, churches run refugee camps, mediate civil wars, organise elections, set up hospitals. All of it happens because of heeding the call to go to Jesus through the storms and across the waves.

There is every possible reason for optimism about the future of Christian faith in our world and in this country. Optimism does not come from us, but because to us and to all people Jesus comes and says "Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid". We are called to step out of the comfort of our own traditions and places, and go into the waves, reaching for the hand of Christ. Let us provoke each other to heed the call of Christ, to be clear in our declaration of Christ, committed in prayer to Christ, and we will see a world transformed.

ENDS

© Justin Welby 2013

Unwanted Gifts - some great thoughts here

C.S. Lewis writes, “God shows us a new facet of the glory, and we refuse to look at it because we’re still looking for the old one.” Danielle DuRant suggests that the asking for and receiving of gifts often taps into our deepest hopes and fears.
Unwanted Gifts

Quote of the Day

Church: a colony of heaven in the country of death, a strategy of the Holy Spirit for giving witness to the already-inaugurated kingdom of God
Eugene Peterson, The Pastor, 110

I like the way this brings together the Already and the Not-Yet. The church is not the kingdom; it is far from perfect. But it is a core element in God's strategy.

He then goes on to highlight tow faulty views of church
- the idealistic, where pastors don't stay long enough to bring all the pieces of the jigsaw together (because in fact it can never be done in any church)
- church as catering to consumer tastes of spirituality (business opportunity oriented)

But in fact church is a work of God's Spirit. Peterson notes how the early chapters of Acts are patterned on those of Luke. Church is story. "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons". The church is "conceived by the Holy Spirit".

Gay Marriage Debate

Excellent article here

One quote: "One of the goods of marriage is that it confers social recognition on a relationship which is dependent on the gendered 'other'. Thankfully, we live in an age and society which has done more than most to ensure that gender roles are fluid, that men and women are equally able to access jobs, careers and other social opportunities, as well as taking up domestic responsibilities. Yet we still recognise that men and women are in various ways different. The point about equality for men and women is not that the difference is irrelevant, but that both are equally valuable and necessary. We may struggle to identify all the dimensions of that difference, and disagree about their significance, but as many feminist writers have rightly recognised, 'gender-blindness' is not the answer. Gender-blindness runs the risk of entrenching norms and practices which typically favour men and are oppressive towards women. The fact of difference has to be acknowledged and valued if we are to secure equality. That is why we are right to worry about the small number of women MPs or CEOs.

"Marriage as currently defined is the central social institution which expresses the idea that men and women are equally valuable as men and women. It is only marriage which harnesses gender difference to the purposes of social cooperation. Almost all other ways in which difference is acknowledged - from sports teams to public lavatories - depend on segregation. Sexual union in marriage reinforces a comprehensive 'together-in-otherness' of male and female. Yet marriage is also open to a wide range of views on the practical outworking of this difference. It would be ironic if after having reformed the patriarchal consequences of marriage the institution itself should become gender-blind.

The grounding of interdependence in marriage has wider social consequences. It anchors our understanding that it is normal for all social institutions to rely on this mutual interdependence. The excessive individualism of modern Western society, as well as the collapse of participation in all forms of organised social action, has often been observed. Redefining marriage to be indifferent to sexual identity reinforces this individualistic tendency because it turns human society - from marriage outwards - into a matter of individual inclination and choice. Marriage will cease to be an institution which reflects the necessary and natural interdependence of men and women. Every successful relationship depends on some degree of mutual dependency, but marriage is distinctive in recognising and valuing a difference that is deeper than those of character and circumstance. The man-and-woman criterion not only secures gender interdependence in marriage, it also models and promotes this gender interdependence more widely across society."

For myself, I am becoming more and more convinced that the key issue is diversity. Diversity is often (always?) given as the reason for Gay-Marriage, but I suspect that precisely the opposite is true. Traditional Christian marriage places diversity as a fundamental building block of society. Without that, diversity itself is threatened.

Marriage - Human Astronauts

(Sermon as party of a Marriage Preparation weekend)
Imagine two people strapped into a space rocket, headed for Mars in some perhaps not-so-distant day in the future. They are on a great adventure. They take with them everything they need for survival - seeds, equipment to make water, masses of oxygen sent ahead on unmanned rockets - and now they will go.
There is no coming back. Perhaps there will be no earth to come back to. Human life seems threatened by global disaster. Here is a chance to start afresh. With this couple, this married couple. Eventually, they will populate this further planet, begin a new society.
Someone has said that "marriage partners may be thoughts of as the astronauts of society" (Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage). Perhaps I can explore that for a while, though bearing in mind that God when he wanted to show us fullness of life came amongst us as a single man. So I could explore this from the point of view of singleness, but that is for another day.
On your wedding day: blast off. You come down the aisle. "Ten, nine, eight..." No wonder there is great excitement!
First of all, you are building your rocket. A space rocket needs to be strong. You need to be able to trust it. It must be faithful. Yesterday, we spoke about faithfulness, constancy. This featured very highly on the reasons you have chosen  to get married. You are creating safe place. A safe place where you can face each other across the breakfast table, where you can sort out the debt problems, where you can moan about rolling up the toothpaste the wrong way. It is a place where we can "spill the beans" about oneself and still be loved. Yesterday someone said that it is a place where you can "grow old together". In an uncertain world, it is a place of security, a place to face the future, death even. Single people too may have these safe places. I think of those who have been able to experience this through deep friendships. And they are equally precious. Yours is a particular vocation of faithfulness.
You have been testing the rocket. Sometimes the count down has had to be restarted. But now the launch date is in sight!
Secondly, your marriage is a very public place of celebration. At every moment yesterday it seemed, we said  "Party". Your marriage is not alone in a corner. That is why by law you have to have witnesses. Two is the minimum - and for one couple it will be 141! Your friends and family will gather on the launch pad. Underneath it all, this is because it matters to us all. Yours in the building block of the future. Yours is the smallest unit of that great thing we value so much - society. Your faithfulness secures society into the future. Around 10 years ago, I said to myself - if all Banks are as bad as the one I'm dealing with, we are in for some problems! I wish I had listened to myself. Without trust, everything breaks down. This will be put to the test in the "growing old together".
This trust and security is a safe place for your children. You are re-populating the future. You are creating a safe space-rocket for your children to grow, develop. Rest assured, they will never fully "leave home". As we gather for your wedding day, with joy and excitement we place society's well-being in your hands.
Space journeys are risky things. You never quite know what you will face - from the challenges of children not sleeping, to the teenage years, to frailty and older age. There is nowhere to hide!
On adventures we all fail. Sometimes people speak of the crisis in modern marriage. Strangely, that is the evidence for what I say. For you will face all sorts of problems on the way. These all testify to the adventure you are going on together.
You have come to the right place to begin a journey of risk. For you do not travel alone. There are not two but three in your marriage.
This place is I like to think one of those that led to the abolition of the slave trade, as William Smith came here and saw the grave of Hester Woodley. With God, nothing is impossible, and there is always forgiveness when we fail and seek to find his help to ask forgiveness, to forgive one another, and begin again.
Perhaps the best marriage preparation you can do is to determine to come here - or somewhere like it - each week, and to give time to prayer and reading the Bible regularly. As the saying does: those ho pray together, stay together.

Quote for the Day

"Shakespeare, with a true understanding of the cross, always puts his greatest wisdom in the mouth of his fools."
- Malcolm Guite, Faith, Hope & Poetry

The John Piper Mosaic at St Paul's

You can't miss it when you come into church!

By the noted artist John Piper, famed for his stained glass windows in Coventry Cathedral, it shows two of Jesus' disciples on Easter Day. It is about to dawn on them (or has it already) that Jesus really has risen from the dead.

This Christmas it struck me how full of journeys Luke's gospel is. The story depicted takes place as part of a journey, from Jerusalem to Emmaus. We are told of Jesus' travels. And at the beginning of Luke there are the journeys of Mary to see Elizabeth her cousin, Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem, then later taking him to the Temple in Jerusalem; and then later Jesus getting lost on a trip his family make from Nazareth to Jerusalem. It is as if Luke wants to stress how so much of the Christian life is a journey.

Years ago someone said to me that they had difficulty believing that Jesus is God. I said, do you believe he is the Truth? Not sure. The Truth? Not sure? The Way? Yes. OK then, I said, stick with that. For if he is the Truth and the Life he will lead you there. And sure enough he did.

So, if you are not sure where you are in terms of faith, or Christian faith, don't worry. Stick with Jesus as the Way. Somewhere it says, Seek the Lord and you will find him.

So, travel on that journey with Jesus; don't worry about the arriving at a fuller faith. God will lead you to that.

And by the way, how many journeys can you find in Luke? Do tell me when you have counted them.

Poem for the Day

Ode

by Joseph Addison

(after Psalm 19:1-6)

The Spacious Firmament on high,
With all the blue Etherial Sky,
And spangled Heav’ns, a Shining Frame,
Their great Original proclaim:
Th’ unwearied Sun, from Day to Day,
Does his Creator’s Power display,
And publishes to every Land
The Work of an Almighty Hand.
Soon as the Evening Shades prevail,
The Moon takes up the Wondrous Tale,
And nightly to the list’ning Earth
Repeats the Story of her Birth:
Whilst all the Stars that round her burn,
And all the Planets, in their turn,
Confirm the Tidings as they rowl,
And spread the Truth from Pole to Pole.
What though, in solemn Silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial Ball?
What tho’ nor real Voice nor Sound
Amid their radiant Orbs be found?
In Reason’s Ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious Voice,
For ever singing, as they shine,
‘The Hand that made us is Divine.’

Quote for the Day

Henry Venn to missionaries in 1861: "avoid putting yourself before them as a leader; rather stand behind them as a prompter and counselor.".. "[P]rompting to self-action is more important than inducing men to follow a leader."

Ian Black: Epiphany ebay - unwanted gifts at the manger

Ian Black: Epiphany ebay - unwanted gifts at the manger: Did you get any unwanted presents this Christmas?  Some socks or smelly soap you won’t use, a CD of music you don’t lik...

Prayer for Mission and Unity

There is great power in this prayer of Bishop Stephen, used widely today in Chelmsford Diocese, if used to slowly and reflectively:

O Holy Trinity,

three persons but One God,

open our minds to know your will;

open our hearts to receive your peace;

open our hands to do your work;

give your church the unity which was Christ’s prayer;

help us live with conscientious difference;

forgive us when we gain the world and put our souls in danger.

You know what is good for us:

come by your Spirit and change us,

let your church reflect the beauty, diversity and hospitality that we see in you,

lead us to a place of graceful concord:

a self-forgetful love,

a turning back to Christ:

for with your grace to help we can be one,

and in your strength can strive to serve and bless,

and by your will can see your kingdom come.

Use us to the full;

and when we are empty, fill us afresh.

We know you love your church,

help us to love each other.

Unite us in the effervescent joy of your declaring,

but not just us – we ask it so the world may believe.

And in these days of uncertainty, we ask it in the name of him

who is our foundation, our salvation and our end, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Walking with Christ

Bearing in mind the Emmaus Road passage in Luke, his close friendship with Paul and the Emmaus Road mosaic at St Paul's Harlow, I love this article from LICC

Holding on in the New Year

The first time I went on a flume was with one of my daughters on holiday. They had become the rage well after my trips to the open air and chilly swimming pool of my boyhood. This one was in an inside pool, and heated!

But pondering the flume from the top, I'm glad I had my daughter to focus on. Hold onto her, and keep holding on to her - that was all that mattered.

So, down we went, and it was great! With a huge splash at the bottom.

The new year can be like that - huge uncertainties ahead. Who knows what is round the bend? But the difference is that we are the ones being held. We do not hold onto Christ - he holds onto us.

The gospel stories of Christmas and Epiphanies are all about new beginnings: a birth, a child, first trip to the Temple, the anxieties of new parents, magi seeking a strange birth, a new political rival perhaps, new encounters.... All sorts of people encounter him and it is the beginning of a new story, a new adventure for each one of them.

Each of them in their way must have felt as if they were going down a flume, with its twists, turns and uncertainties. Mary, Joseph, the magi, John the Baptist, Nathanael. Epiphany introduces to the first steps of disciples as they encounter Jesus, as they enter the flume of discipleship.

John's gospel focuses on the words, Come and See. That is what each person had the opportunity to do. Each had the opportunity to walk the journey ahead with Christ.

Some would struggle or fight against it. So it was for Herod. He wanted to come and kill. He saw Jesus as a threat. But even he could not escape the one who encounters each of us. Jesus escaped him (to Egypt). And Jesus would escape the latter day Herod through death itself into the everlasting journey of resurrection.

We do not need to hold onto Christ. He is already holding thee and me. This is what Joseph discovered as he was warned by the angel and finally settled in Nazareth (Mary's, not his, home town, as I read it).

But we do need to realise who it is that holds us, and that he does hold us. And we can respond to him. A child who trust to their mother or father in the flume of life is going to be happier and safer than one who struggles.